I look forward to reading that tomorrow Richard. It’s still Saturday (just) here in Dubai. It was 35C when we arrived in the middle of the night and was 42.5C in the carport around lunchtime! A bit different from Cumbria! A good zzz is in order now.

No, Ian,
Milton Brewery, Brisbane, made XXXX.
We had a business next door. We first enjoyed their Tap Room one night in 1971, were told when turfed out next morning not to return, as they sacked the security guards we had misled into stupor. Geoff.

It sounds lovely; have never done the camel ride despite lots of visits. We were out in the dunes at sunset once when we went for a campfire and bbq but we travelled there by Nissan Patrol. I was put off camels while living in Egypt as a child.

Quite mundane really; my father was in the British Army and we were posted there. I would like to visit again but we spend most of our time and energy keeping up with family and friends.
Life has certainly been interesting but I fear there are many things I’d like to have done that won’t happen.

One of them, the Daedalus proposal, might well provide the data to blow CAGW and CC out of the atmosphere and off the surface of the planet. The IPCC only admits to a mere +/- 1% variation in TSR (Total Solar Irradiance, or is it just +/- 0.1%?) which is but a fraction of one aspect of Solar Activity affecting this planet. They invented the Solar Constant for a known variable star! Hah!

This proposal, should it get off the ground and into space, could bring the other 97% of climate-affecting solar activity into play and we’ll see some real science instead of propagandized pseudo-science. It would be about time.

However, I’m not holding my breath: it has to get into space first and if any project could be killed off at this stage, this is the endangered one.

To: theRealUniverse at #1.3.1.1
I got it from the European Space Agency web site, which I check into regularly. Yes, I spotted Ben Davidson’s take on it some hours later when I dropped in for my `Davidson’s Daily Dose of Sanity.‘ Davidson’s comment was similar to mine but not the same. He gave more information.

If you follow the link above to the ESA page, and read it, you will see at the bottom of the page:

Feasibility studies will now start, after which a further selection will be made, with a view to launching of the successful mission in 2027–28.

That was more my focus than Davidson’s. There is plenty of time and opportunity to sideline, if not outright dismiss, this idea. Ben makes the point that this is an area crying out for deeper investigation and why, I didn’t. Yes, we both saw the potential for it to upset the IPCC’s Pet Paradigm Applecart, but focused on different aspects. (see:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwJfZiTG2ww Davidson’s Daily News for 2018/09/22 @ 2m:19s.)

I’m not at all relaxed about this making it through to implementation: see What’s a wojick?‘s comment below at #1.3.1.4. As Rudyard Kipling suggested: The Leopard does not change it’s spots. Not in the 8-9year lead time the ESA has given. Someone will note it’s destructive potential, sure as the Antarctic has penguins, or WW3 will intervene. Whatever.

That’s good news. However, I will believe it’s all over when I see certain very wealthy individuals behind bars for life because they have made millions if not billions out of what has to be the biggest scam of all time.

The science focus areas served by Glory included: atmospheric composition; carbon cycle, ecosystems, and biogeochemistry; climate variability and change; and water and energy cycles.[1] The US$424 million satellite was lost on March 4, 2011, when its Taurus XL carrier rocket malfunctioned.[2]

Mischenko has famously stated that climate models can give you any result you want; heresy for a NASA GISS scientist. His proof that back radiation does not exist is a bitter pill for the IPCC and true believers of such nonsense.

It will be interesting to see just how resistant to interference the Agency will be if their Daedalus project is recognised as a paradigm wrecker.
It has to get through feasibility studies first, then get up there!
Interesting Times.

Gosh I’m betting you didn’t even bother to read the science linked to support their point 1 claim.

“These results confirm theoretical
predictions of the atmospheric greenhouse effect due to anthropogenic
emissions, and provide empirical evidence of how rising CO2 levels,
mediated by temporal variations due to photosynthesis and respiration,
are affecting the surface energy balance.”

“These results confirm theoretical
predictions of the atmospheric greenhouse effect due to anthropogenic
emissions, and provide empirical evidence of how rising CO2 levels,
mediated by temporal variations due to photosynthesis and respiration,
are affecting the surface energy balance.”

SS:
,,, you do have to admit that the sentence David quoted is a masterful piece of obscurantism, gobble-de-gook, stultiloquence, paradoxical grandiloquence, bombast, flummery, rodomontade and balderdash.

In a word: nonsense.

How can photosynthesis and respiration cause `temporal variations’?
These `temporal variations’ are then supposed to `mediate rising CO2 levels’?

Anyone who can figure out how to modify time is onto a huge winner! Hello, FTL Space Travel!’ Not even CERN’s atom smasher can do that. Yet.

“These results confirm theoretical
predictions of the atmospheric greenhouse effect due to anthropogenic
emissions,..” is total garbage, There arent ANY theoretical predictions based on real physics that prove any greenhouse effect. It breaks ALL thermodynamics. If you can prove it, publish a paper.

25 reasons to be skeptical of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW) if anyone wants to check it out:

25 reasons might change the mind of an honest man who also knows enough science to understand the argument. But the net result of arguing the science since I started reading this and a few other blogs in about 2008 has been like spitting upwind in a hurricane. You get nowhere and are embarrassed for your trouble.

What we need and do not have is 25 reasons for our elected politicians to stay honest. No, make that 25,000 or 25,000,000 reasons called voters who’re onto their dishonest schemes.

Instead we get renewable energy. It’s time to tell the politicians that their tenure is no longer renewable.

‘The North Atlantic Current moderates Svalbard’s temperatures, particularly during winter, giving it up to 20 °C (36 °F) higher winter temperature than similar latitudes in continental Russia and Canada. This keeps the surrounding waters open and navigable most of the year.’ wiki

Once permafrost is penetrated by a road or structure it is no longer “perma” – it may stay frozen as long as the temps are low, and no heat from road or building penetrates, but – any penetration brings heat and water down to the not-penetrated, colder layers, which melt a bit, leaving areas for more water/heat to penetrate, and so more heat and or water enters, and so on, until you have a puddle of goo and the road sinks or the building tips/sinks/collapses. This includes any warmth of the sun on the structure or heat within the structure escaping to the outer foundation. It does not take “global warming” to melt permafrost.

As the other 82% start flying the larger danger by far isn’t going to be carbon emissions it’s going to be crowded skies around airports.

Right now if you drive the 405 freeway past LAX and look eastward you will see the landing lights of plane after plane all lined up nice and neat for every one of the 4 runways that is long enough to handle it. They’ll have those light on even in daylight so they can be seen through the coastal haze and smog. On the ground is another line of airplanes waiting for a chance to take off from those same runways. You cannot shoehorne more traffic in there without reaching the limits of human ability to keep track of it all and then you have a disaster or you admit your capacity limit and allow no more flights.

It already depends on a lot of automation and I suspect there will be more in the future but automation has its limits too.

Here is what’s in the sky over the U.S. at any given moment. And this is probably not nearly everything. And it all diverges from and then converges on runways again. And runways are a finite resource. The problem is not going to be carbon footprint. It’s not so bad once they spread out and head for their individual destinations. There’s a lot of air over the United States so that traffic load doesn’t look so bad. But you don’t start a flight in the air or end it in the air either.

Then you have the sometimes wildly varying capability of the flight crews to consider as they fly in more and more difficult environments. Any ATP or foreign equivalent out there will back me up about these basic facts.

Right now if you drive the 405 freeway past LAX and look eastward you will see the landing lights of plane after plane all lined up nice and neat for every one of the 4 runways that is long enough to handle it. They’ll have those light on even in daylight so they can be seen through the coastal haze and smog.

Is it haze and smog or the mind altering chemicals they spew out? Oh wait! They only appear at over 30,000 ft which incidentally is the altitude con-trails form.

Contrails are temperature dependent. But they’re also dependent on relative humidity. You need conditions conducive to condensation. I have seen a few jets with con-trails that by their apparent size were much lower than 30,000, maybe 10 – 15,000. At 30,000 I would have a hard time even seeing them without magnification. Usually condensation happens around tiny particles in the air in order to have fog and it also takes at least a small wind. Otherwise you have dew instead. And a contrail if you dissect it is just fog.

Interesting. And I admit to no more knowledge than above. Does it also depend on something in the exhaust in addition to the water vapor?

Q. How many solar panels does it take to prevent climate change drought?

A. prepare for perfect weather ….

Solar comes to rescue for drought-hit cotton farm

“NSW cotton farmer Jon Elder has waved goodbye to his $500,000-plus annual diesel bill thanks to the installation of a solar pumping system that will also provide a nice side-earner from renewable energy credits just as the state struggles with the worst drought in decades.

I had a conversation with a relative about the blatant left wing bias of the ABC, and i was basically called a whining conservative who is out of touch….

I am convinced things cant get this bad unless there is a spuritual dimension to it all. The plethora of zombie movies are i think a bragging social commentary by the Elite , who has performed mass brainwashing of the population, which means its ready to move into the next ( and nasty ) phase of overt Brown Shirt style persecution.

My own take from my Christian perspective is the need for more prayer for protection of conservatives and those who see what is plain as day, if youre not living in a confused or cowardly PC fog….

In that respect I nominate The Happening (2008) as the worst film ever.
By the way, there are no zombies at all – only self-hatred.
Always wondered why the authors’ motivations was not seriously discussed.

Don’t know how my reply got listed as comment #22. Might be the result something to do with the spuritual dimension!
Quite possibly not worth the time and effort required to go back up to have a look at it.

This is a paper by Richard Mackey on the work of Australian scientist Rhodes Fairbridge who also identified the same issues with increased volcanic activity during solar minima and the 179 years quasi cycle of the sun’s movements about the barycentre.

“During the 1920s and ‘30s Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology published research about the sun/climate relationship, especially Sunspot Cycle No 14, showing that it probably caused the worst drought then on record.”

If only “their” BoM could shake off it’s obsession with a trace gas (CO2) as the driver of the climate they might just be able to again make a meaningful contribution to real science.

From the above petition to Premier Andrews re proposed
Council new Orwellian powers.

It is with much sadness that I have read and analysed the
Draft Local Government Act 2018 bill (together with the
Victorian Energy Efficiency Target 2007 (VEET) legislation)
that if legislated, will empower each municipal council
throughout Victoria to become an “Authority” and to be
able to create and enforce its own laws, which could
potentially impose severe Climate Change policies on
Victorian households and businesses. If implemented, I
believe such legislation will remove significant chunks
from our Australian democracy for the following reasons:
ALL “corporations” known as” local councils” will become
legitimised as representing “the third tier of government”.

Our Constitution does NOT allow for this to happen; nor
is it appropriate for a corporation to be both a commercial
profit-making enterprise for its owners and an arm of
government that serves the people it is required to
represent.ALL councils will be elevated to “Authority”
status; meaning, they will become laws unto themselves and
no person affected by their laws will have any form of
appeal to question the decisions councils make.

ALL councils will be able to make their own “Local Laws”
(which are different to by-laws) and they will be able to
enforce them – even utilising the police when necessary.
Councils will be required to bring community housing up
to the standards specified in the Victorian Energy
Efficiency Target 2007. This means they will send
“authorised officers” to people’s homes and businesses
to produce a list of work required by the landowner to
meet their targets for energy efficiency.If the landowner
fails to complete the work within the given period, the
Council will then arrange for the work to be done at the
landowner’s expense. This could cost $10,000′s per “entity”!
Once completed, the Council gives the landowner time to pay.
If this fails to happen, the land can then be “transferred”
to the Council.The Council will then obtain “market value”
of the property and after any mortgage costs, encumbrances,
fees and fines are deducted, many people may not see much
cash remaining from the value of their former home. They
could also be looking for other accommodation.

Under the USSR each area of the soviet union had its own local body for governance, which is why in Australia all those council mergers have taken place, as we are as a nation being transitioned to a communist model……

In South africa, they changed the laws to drive people off the land. Its called “_Rewuldibg” abd the Elute/ UN plan is to empty 90% of the land area and drive people into mega cities where tgey can ve easily controlled. Thus is just UN agenda 2030 in action by thier local representatives.

“The White House has drafted an executive order for President Donald Trump’s signature that would instruct federal antitrust and law enforcement agencies to open investigations into the business practices of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and other social media companies.”

Plus the lefty state-funded media have very much pushed the interests of apple, google, bookface and twittery, etc. The inquiry and actions should be broadened to the impact of all such media and their interwoven mutual effort to undermine the culture, society, security, economy, science and politics in Western Countries. And frankly limp idiot celebs are birds of a feather. They have a personal right to vote, they have freedom to speak as they see fit, but they don’t have a right to grandstand in public and conspire to shape public-debate and derail legislated policies, with their insincere shallow gibberish and me-me-me ism, and the media have not right to be continually pushing their crap on to the public as though it is worth hearing or having it quash all other actually worthwhile considerations.

But sorting out the software and operating-system giants is a good starting place. If nothing else, to enforce the prevention of personal data theft and its selling, and actually enforcing privacy laws by eliminating their absurd pushing “Agreement Terms” provisions on everything, that you as a citizen, have to use online, with their software, as they’ve created an online mono-culture, where the ‘user’ is just a product to be sold, that has no control, no rights and no real privacy or data security at all. The privacy laws, free speech laws and anti-discrimination laws exist to protect the public from such, to ensure public debate is full, open and not derailed by polarized sectional interests and their narrow agendas.

Peter Gleeson: Greens have stranglehold on national debate
Courier Mail – 9 hours ago
GREEN activism has never been more powerful in Australia…
It’s a force of nature, fuelled by rich-lister financial backing, much of it coming from overseas. It infiltrates just about every fibre of the Aussie way…

22 Sept: AmericanThinker: The New Age of Coal
By Christopher Mendoza
No matter how hard environmental do-gooders are trying to kill coal, they’re clearly not succeeding. According to a new report (LINK) by the Energy Information Administration, despite the ongoing fear-mongering from the left, coal continues to be a major source of power generation in both developed and emerging nations, accounting for as much of the world’s electricity today as it did in the 1990s. As it turns out, coal has proven to be incredibly resilient in Asia and Africa, where it has been pushed up by rising demand (LINK)…

Incorrigible tree-huggers may think restricting funding for coal will lead to solar panels and wind farms all over Africa, but the real result is that African countries are being held back in their development. The Nigerian government, for example, plans to generate about 30% of its electricity from coal. The country’s Mines and Steel Ministry has identified nearly three billion tons of coal reserves – fuel that that’s crucial for the country’s electricity generation, steel production, or cement manufacturing, all of which have enormous economic potential. However, with the World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions denying Nigeria the necessary funding over pollution concerns, this dream is dead in the water…https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/09/the_new_age_of_coal.html

21 Sept: Science Mag: This ice-covered Icelandic volcano may emit more carbon dioxide than all of the country’s other volcanoes combined
By Sid Perkins
Despite being mostly smothered by a glacier averaging 200 meters thick, one of Iceland’s largest and most active volcanoes still manages to belch surprisingly large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, new research reveals…

Based on the team’s models and data, Katla is emitting somewhere between 12,000 and 24,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each day (LINK), the researchers report online this week in Geophysical Research Letters. That’s several times higher than previous estimates of emissions from all of Iceland’s volcanoes combined—which may be vastly underestimated because only two of that nation’s subglacial volcanoes have had their emissions measured in detail…

Scientists estimate that volcanoes worldwide emit, on average, about 1.5 metric tons of CO2 per day (only about 2% of the amount that human activity causes). Yet that estimate may be far too low because it’s based on measurements from only 33 of the world’s most volcanically active peaks (only three of which are ice-covered), among the 1500 or so that have erupted in the past 10,000 years. More data gathered from Iceland—as well as Antarctica, which is home to dozens of ice-smothered volcanoes—may help scientists come up with a better estimate for volcanic CO2 emissions.http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/ice-covered-icelandic-volcano-may-emit-more-carbon-dioxide-all-country-s-other

22 Sept: ABC: How will Australia’s longest-running flower festival cope with drought and climate change?
ABC Southern Qld By Peter Gunders
Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers kicks off this weekend in the middle of trying weather conditions.
More than half of Queensland is in drought, and Toowoomba Regional Council recently implemented stricter water restrictions for parts of the shire.
Yet, gardeners have risen to the challenge and created a colourful oasis on the top of the Great Dividing Range.

But how long can a festival made famous for its bright, but very thirsty, flowers survive? And should precious water be used on the garden in 2018?
“Emphatically, yes,” Toowoomba horticulturalist and TAFE lecturer Mike Wells said
“We are so well situated in this region to grow such a beautiful range of plants, we should do whatever we can to keep the gardens and keep the carnival.”…
“Yes, the climate has changed, and we’re having chaotic weather patterns at the moment.
“Are we likely to get to the point of being full of Californian desert gardens? I hope not, and I don’t think so.”…

most Chronicle pages on the Festival are behind a paywall; however, here’s one that isn’t:

VIDEO: 1min40secs: 18 Sept: Toowoomba Chronicle: WATCH: Flowers bloom in Queens Park ahead of Carnival
TOOWOOMBA Regional Council has shared a video showcasing the beautiful Botanic Gardens at Queens Park ahead of Carnival of Flowers this weekend.
The drone footage shows the main central floral display in the gardens as well as several other garden beds.
Thousands of people have already checked out the flowers in Queens Park and hundreds of thousands are expected to see them in the coming weeks…https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/watch-flowers-bloom-queens-park-ahead-carnival/3524475/

PICS: 17 Sept: Travel at 60: The Carnival of Flowers is almost here
The floral celebration officially kicks off on Friday September 21, and runs until Sunday September 30. During that time, the entire city comes to colourful life, and visitors flock to gaze upon thousands upon thousands of gorgeous flowers – in fact, a massive 176,030 seedlings and bulbs have been planted for this year’s event.
And if you’re wondering what state the gardens will be in for this year’s carnival, we’re here to tell you: they’re looking gorgeous!

Travel at 60 visited Toowoomba on the weekend, and these photos show you just what the gardens were looking like just two days ago. They’re set to be at their absolute prime for the duration of the carnival…
The highlight of the festivities is undoubtedly the Grand Central Floral Parade on Saturday 22 September, when 100,000 people will line the street and cheer on hundreds of flowery floats, decorated according to this year’s theme: “The Secret Garden”…https://travel.startsat60.com/articles/carnival-of-flowers-toowoomba-queensland

22 Sept: EconomicTimesIndia: PTI: PM Modi dedicates NTPC’s Odisha coal mine to the nation
Coal produced from this mine will be used in the under-construction 1600-MW Darlipali Super Thermal Power Plant of NTPC
This is the second mine of the state-run company to be operational and its first in the state…

The PM also inaugurated a new airport at Jharsuguda, which he said will attract investors to the mineral-rich area and would act as a lifeline in the western region of the state…
Noting that only one major airport existed in Odisha for so many years, Modi said Kutch district in Gujarat alone has five airports. “Now, the second airport of the state would act as a lifeline in western region of Odisha and attract investors to the mineral-rich region,” he said.

Asserting that the BJP-led government has been taking concrete steps for strengthening the aviation sector, he said only 450 aircraft operated in the country since Independence, while steps have been taken for 950 new aircraft during the last one year…

PM Morrison cites security in Pacific as reason for not leaving the UN Paris Agreement:

“If Pacific leaders lose faith in Australia, then they will turn to others … Pacific leaders are not naive about the strings that will come with development from China, but they are beginning to feel abandoned.”

22 Sept: AP: World leaders gather at UN under threat from unilateralism
By EDITH M. LEDERER
With rising unilateralism challenging its very existence, the United Nations convenes its annual meeting of world leaders Monday and will try once more to tackle problems together as a community of nations, addressing threats ranging from Mideast conflicts to the effects of global warming — and also encouraging the glimmer of hope over the nuclear standoff in North Korea.

This year, 133 world leaders have signed up to attend the General Assembly session, a significant increase from last year’s 114. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the expected large turnout “eloquent proof of the confidence of the international community in the United Nations,” though other U.N. officials and diplomats said it’s in response to growing concerns about an increasingly turbulent world.

Guterres said last week that one of his overriding concerns in an increasingly globalized world is the threat to having the U.N.’s 193 member nations work together, which is the foundation of the United Nations.
“Multilateralism is under attack from many different directions precisely when we need it most,” the U.N. chief told reporters Thursday. “In different areas and for different reasons, the trust of people in their political establishments, the trust of states among each other, the trust of many people in international organizations has been eroded and … multilateralism has been in the fire.”

Guterres challenged diplomats at last week’s opening of the 73rd session of the General Assembly by saying: “At a time of fragmentation and polarization, the world needs this assembly to show the value of international cooperation.”
Whether it will be able to remains in question…

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters that Trump, who champions an “America First” policy, wants to talk about “protecting U.S. sovereignty,” and she reiterated Washington’s opposition to the 2015 Paris climate agreement on curbing global warming and a newly agreed international compact aimed at regulating migration.
“We really value sovereignty of the country,” Haley said. “It is not saying multilateralism can’t work, but it’s saying sovereignty is a priority over all of that, and we always have to make sure we’re doing that — and there are many countries that agree with us.”

Before stepping down as U.N. humanitarian chief Aug. 31, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein expressed serious concern that populism, intolerance and oppression are “becoming fashionable again.”…
French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to be a key voice joining Guterres in the coming week in speaking out against this trend and supporting multilateralism as key to promoting peace…

Trump is hosting an event Monday on “The World Drug Problem” and Haley said 124 countries have signed a global call to action. Activists on drug policy note it was never negotiated, and one group, the Harm Reduction Coalition, called it “an instance of heavy-handed U.S. ‘with us or against us’ diplomacy.”…

The U.S. holds the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council in September and has scheduled two ministerial meetings, the first on Wednesday presided over by Trump. It was initially to focus on Iran but has now been broadened to the topic of “nonproliferation” of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
“I’m sure that is going to be the most watched Security Council meeting ever,” Haley told reporters…

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will preside over the second meeting Thursday on North Korea, an issue the Security Council was united on in imposing increasingly tough sanctions. But that unity now appears to be at risk over enforcement of sanctions and the broader issues of how to achieve denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and when sanctions should be lifted against North Korea…

I’m not going to pretend to know what is going to happen in the coming midterms but would just note that the attendance and enthusiasm of the crowds at Trump Rallies during the run up to his election in 2016 were far better indicators of the election results than any of the polls were. At his recent Rally in Missouri the line to get in was 2 miles long and 20,000 were turned away.

It is critical that the Republicans hold their majorities in both houses of Congress for Trump to continue to advance the most important aspects of his agenda and to officially expose and punish those principles in the deep state which attempted to influence the election and then when that failed tried to carry out a silent coup to eject a duly elected president on fabricated evidence and charges.

It should be noted that is pretty clear that elements of Australian and Britain’s intelligence were cooperating with the deep state in this effort and now are trying to help them cover it up.
If you think I’m seeing shadows where there are none then you’ll have to answer this simple question. How can two foreign intelligence allies (the Brits and Aussies) intelligence people object to the release and declassification of FISA court and other classified documents having to do with US internal affairs and a counterintelligence investigation who’s classified contents they have no business knowing in the first place?

So I would not be surprised if you folks down under don’t get a whiff of the manure we’ve been dealing with over here in the future.

It should be noted that is pretty clear that elements of Australian and Britain’s intelligence were cooperating with the deep state in this effort and now are trying to help them cover it up.

Trump did not say which foreign powers objected to the release of the Nunes investigation papers. I suppose it makes sense that those foreigners would be Britain and Australia.

There was a long article in the Melbourne Age on Thursday about the meeting between Alexander Downer and Cohen (Trump Aide) in London. I don’t know why Cohen agreed to go. They seemed to talk about Hiliary’s State Department emails winding up in Russia. Somehow that has been twisted around into a problem for Trump instead of a problem for Hiliary.

If Trump was to give immunity to Julian Assange we might find out a lot more.

Three countries had Intel agents involved. Britain, Australia, and Isrial. I’m going to be on the road all week so severly limited in detail I can post. But would bet I’m correct about the countries objecting.

We make these people vote.
I was at Vic Markets yesterday, looking at some mineral specimens. Two human specimens, 30 or so, Luvvy Duvvy, were reading from a small book and looking confused. I asked if I could help. We are looking for tourmaline crystal, she said. Pink, brown? The sort that radiates love and charm, he said, pointing to a line in the book. What love and charm? I said emphatically, it was just a lump of rock an rocks have no feelings.
When I glanced sideways, she was giving Bright Boy a knowing look, a curl of contempt on her lips, a raised eyebrow, a plain signal asking how I could be so ignorant.
I muttered Sheesh and wandered off.
They make these people vote. The ignorance, it hurts.
Geoff

Tamino thinks that he has “proved” that my graph (which I call a global warming contour map), is wrong. And many of Tamino’s followers, believe him.

You can imagine, that I am not very happy about this situation. I have spent over 2 years developing my graph, gradually improving it, and thoroughly testing it. I consider it to be a fairly unique, accurate, and reliable graph. You might think that my claims are just bragging, by a conceited loser. But let me tell you about my expertise…

In this article, I use the same “logic” that Tamino used to “prove” that my graph is wrong, to “prove” that Tamino is a moron.

And to think that if those cellulose destroying termites had been around before some 130 million years ago , there would likely have been only a few much smaller deposits of that global dependent energy reservoir called Black Coal.
The termites would have destroyed most of the plant cellulose long before it could consolidate and turn into coal and Lignite, [ aka Brown coal] the first stage towards Black coal.

‘Today, Japan made history by landing two rovers onto the surface of an asteroid. The two rovers (named Rover-1A and 1B) fell from their mothership, Hayabusa2, less than 100 meters above diamond-shaped asteroid Ryugu. Now they are hopping across the rocky landscape in an unprecedented feat of exploration.’

Lost and found section.
Help appreciated finding island noticed missing in 1865.
“It will perhaps surprise many of our readers to learn that one of the Maldive Islands has lately disappeared, without leaving the slightest vestige to indicate the locality where it had existed.”https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/150403972

Climate Science Tells us temperatures will show great contrast with both extreme cold and extreme heat, and that in some places, sea level will appear normal or very slightly below average and that in other places the sea level will rise and even swallow up entire islands at first…right off the map.

‘The Coalition and Labor are neck and neck exactly six months out from the state election, with Opposition leader Luke Foley edging ahead of Gladys Berejiklian as preferred premier, exclusive new polling shows.’

Luke Foley and colleagues are a lacklustre lot of grey people with nothing better to offer apart from criticism as the sixteen years of State Labor is repaired and new projects emerge everywhere we look, Sydney and country areas.

It’s a sick joke, the contracts will continue along with the energy auctions for a long time to come, no doubt until the unreliables have been paid for and enormous profits pocketed.

I am fed up with emailing politicians and receiving absolute BS in reply.

Since 1975 UN Lima Agreement the long march of socialism has been accepted by most of our politicians regardless of the side they claim to be on, they really offer left or far-left options both on the same UN Agendas implementation undermining the sovereignty of nations and ignoring constitutions via UN Treaties.

Firstly he has to get the Wentworth by-election out of the way, hopefully with a victory and without giving the ABC ammunition.
Then a series of policy announcements about the future before Christmas, to raise hope and contrast with Labor’s everlasting negative approach. Then, as the media hysteria dies down (except in the ABC of course) a steady run to the next election.
This will only work IF they can get the electricity bills DOWN by a noticeable amount, which in the long run can only be done by getting rid of the subsidies under the RET. You can still have a RET so long as you do nothing about it, as lots of countries know.

The alternative approach requires the abilities of walking on water and curing cancer. Somehow I don’t think they have the wherewithal for that.

I agree that is his timetable, but getting rid of the subsidies might be a big ask. Lets pretend we are his speech writers, called in after a disastrous result in Wentworth, what do we want him to say?

‘Our government has decided, after 19 years without an increase in global warming, that its safe to build coal fired power stations. So we are seeking tenders for this purpose.

‘To compliment this new energy source we are going to build satellite cities in the regions to absorb the new immigrants, connected by a continental bullet train network.’

Under soviet russia, the general mechanism was to imprison anyone who resisted the “wisdom” of communism, was to lock them up in psychiatric institutions, then destroy their brains with drugs, so when they were released later, they literally were mad, and people said “well, they certainly are mad after all…”

12 Apr: British Vogue: Why Tina Brown’s Summit Is The Davos Of Feminism
Ahead of her ninth Women In the World Summit, Tina Brown tells Claudia Croft what to expect from the prestigious, feminist gathering.
By Claudia Croft
Where can you go to see Hillary Clinton moderate a debate on the worrying rise of “strong men” world leaders, hear Viola Davis speak about growing up in poverty and ending up on Hollywood’s A-list, or find out how the charismatic 11-year-old activist Naomi Wadler, and her Gen-Z cohort, want to change the world? Tina Brown’s Women In The World summit kicks off in New York today and promises three days of dynamic debate, groundbreaking conversation and inspiring keynote speakers (Meryl Streep, Christine Lagarde and Queen Rania of Jordan have all appeared in previous years)…

The summit is put together by Brown, the legendary magazine editor who helmed Tatler in the ’80s, then revitalised Vanity Fair before going to The New Yorker. Her aim was to give voice to the many incredible, impassioned, campaigning women she met in the human rights arena…

Highlights this year include Hillary Clinton moderating a discussion on the impact on Western democracy of “strong-man regimes” in Russia, China and Turkey. The BBC journalist Carrie Gracie, who stepped down as China editor in protest at being paid less than her equivalent male colleagues, will talk about the gender pay gap, and #MeToo looms large. As well as a debate on the new rules of sexual engagement, Asia Argento, one of the first to accuse Harvey Weinstein of assault, will also speak…

Brown describes the atmosphere at the summit as “a cross between Davos and Woodstock.”…
“Women In The World had 700 million media impressions last year,” she tells us, and says that her plan is to grow the platform into a membership model with global events.https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/tina-brown-women-in-world-summit

to say the Vogue piece is disingenuous, would be putting it mildly on many levels, but especially:

VIDEO: 12 Oct 2017: RealClearPolitics: Tucker Carlson: Politicians and Media Enabled Weinstein, “They’re Now Lying To Cover Their Tracks”
FROM TRANSCRIPT:
TUCKER CARLSON: And what about Tina Brown? In the late 1990s, Brown left the New York magazine to partner with Weinstein on a magazine called Talk. Brown conceded yesterday, there were whispers about Weinstein’s behavior. She admits she saw Weinstein routinely give favorable treatment to beautiful women he was cultivating. She saw him quash negative articles about himself by leaking information about other stars.

Despite all of that Brown tells us, nobody really knew for sure. Oh, come on. I worked for Talk Magazine at the time. Trust me, Tina Brown knew. She was Weinstein’s business partner for two years and a famously perceptive person. And yet until now, she’s never mentioned any of it.

It’s not like she never had the chance. For the past seven years, Tina Brown has run the Women in the World Summit which brings together socially conscious feminist like Hillary Clinton and Meryl Streep to discuss the challenges women face worldwide.

21 Sept: Bloomberg: Germany’s Move to Scrap Coal Will Cost Taxpayers
by Brian Parkin and William Wilkes
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s plan to close Germany’s remaining coal-fired power stations will drive up subsidies for regions that mine the commodity, according to a document from the economy and energy ministry seen by Bloomberg.

Taxpayers are already slated to send 35 billion euros ($41 billion) of aid to four coal regions from 2013 to 2028 and will have to increase that amount as efforts to scale back pollution eliminates jobs at mines and power plants, the economy ministry estimated in a report drawn up last month.

The findings were submitted to the commission that Merkel asked to study when Germany could finally close its remaining 120 coal stations, which supplied more than a third of the nation’s electricity last year. After spending 500 billion euros to switch off the most polluting power plants, Merkel is now seeking to balance environmental goals against the need to protect jobs and keep a lid on electricity prices now at their highest level in years.
“The faster Germany pulls out of coal, the more expensive it’s going to be and we’re not talking about negligible costs,” said IGBCE miners, chemical and electrical workers’ union spokesman Lars Ruzic on the phone from Hanover Tuesday. “The phase-out is an immense disruption for utilities, the coal regions, jobs and the broader economy.”

Merkel’s coal commission has kept quiet about its private deliberations. It’s due to publish its main recommendations by the end of October. Philipp Jornitz, a spokesman for the Economy and Energy Ministry in Berlin, declined to comment on the report…

It said that the aid currently scheduled to go to coal regions is a “definite underestimate” of the actual amount of funding supporting those areas, since it excludes additional European Union payments to regional economies in transition.
Power in Germany is already the most expensive in Europe, according to the BDEW utilities federation. Closing the nation’s 120-odd coal plants by 2040 would push up power bills by 20 percent or by 29 billion euros, consultancy Frontier Economics said in an August report financed by RWE AG.

Germany’s remaining coal plants currently have a capacity of 46.7 gigawatts, about 23 percent of the nation’s total electric generation, which can produce 205 gigawatts in total. Wind turbines surpassed coal as the largest contributor to the grid last year…
The four regions support tens of thousands of mining, power industry and service jobs, according to the IGBCE union…

Its not just the cost of compensation….
…if Germany shuts down its coal generators (and Nuclear ?). they will have to replace it with an equivalent capacity of some ” dispatctchable” (reliable) generattion such as Gas …..to cover those periods when the weather doesnt cooperate.
What is 40+ GW of gas generators worth ?

Never met a troll willing to put their own name on the garbage they write , “slight gain” means exactly that and if an election was called right now the Libs would be decimated.
Even I wouldn’t vote for them unless they get out of the Paris agreement, and just how far back was Keating in the polls when he won ?

“British intelligence, apparently seeking to protect Robert Hannigan, the former Director of GCHQ; and Australian intelligence intelligence seeking to protect Alexander Downer, Foreign Affairs Minister and Ambassador to the U.K; have asked President Trump Trump NOT to release un-redacted FISA documents.”

The academic from the University of Technology, Sydney, said if we believed in science as part of the function of our everyday lives, we should believe in climate change.

“You cannot pick and choose — if you don’t accept climate change, you should not be given penicillin or painkillers or even visit a doctor,” he said.

“You should not be allowed to fly or drive a car either. But I guess that as most climate deniers also pick and choose the bits of the Bible they subscribe to as well, I should not be surprised.”

~ ~ ~ end quote ~ ~ ~

Professor Greg Skilbeck wants to deny people their fundamental human rights, if they don’t believe in the global warming religion.

He wants “heretics” to get no medical treatment, including penicillin and painkillers.

He wants “heretics” to be stopped from going to the doctor.

What will happen to “heretics” children and babies?

==========

I would like to suggest to the University of Technology, Sydney, that Professor Greg Skilbeck should be dismissed from his position.

If the University of Technology, Sydney, is unwilling to do that, then I suggest that the Australian government should cut funding to the University of Technology, Sydney.

We can not allow unreasonable people to set the agenda, for dealing with global warming. Professor Greg Skilbeck’s words will make the climate change situation even worse than it is already.

Professor Greg Skilbeck apppears to believe the he owns science, and can stop other people from using it. This is an arrogant and stupid belief. I have no confidence that Professor Greg Skilbeck can contribute positively to the global warming debate.

UTS is the Australian equivalent of the old USA southern universities. Want a degree? Pay your cash and you to can be a Ph.D. No problems.

The best UTS can do is try to live off the work of others by conferring “honorary degrees” on great minds that had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with UTS, for example: “UTS conferred an honorary Doctor of Science degree on Nobel Prize winner Professor Peter Doherty at a Faculty of Science graduation ceremony held recently on the city campus”.

About Scimex
Scimex (the Science Media Exchange) is an online news portal aimed primarily at helping journalists cover science. The site features a Newsfeed, our Find an Expert database of media-savvy scientists, a multimedia hub and science events calendar.
How is Scimex funded?
Scimex is a collaboration between the Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC) and the Science Media Centre of New Zealand (SMCNZ), and was developed through substantial funding from the Australian Government’s Inspiring Australia program, with additional support provided by the Myer Foundation and supporters of the Australian Science Media Centre.

24 Sept: Scimex.org: Soiling the planet: warming soils will release more pollutants
Climate change could lead to increased human exposure to heavy metals and metalloids such as mercury, arsenic and lead, as well as organic contaminants such as PFAS pollutants.
Journal/conference: Soil Systems
Organisation/s: CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CARE), University of South Australia…

Lot’s of places around the world are breaking historical records for snow in September leading to widespread crop failures. Looks like renewables have done their job and now we need to reverse things before it gets too cold and we have a major food crisis. Although this could be interpreted as tongue in cheek it’s not meant to be and is very serious – crop failures that is. The preoccupation with renewable is not only stupid and barking up the wrong tree it’s almost criminal given the huge waste of money that could have been spent on solving the real problems of the world. I look forward one day seeing the leaders of the global warming/renewables scam joining the likes of Bernard Madoff and spending the rest of their lives behind bars.

A couple of posts I made yesterday got listed as #22 and #32. Neither of them were where they should have been. Today, what was #32 yesterday is where what was #22 yesterday should have been. What was #22, yesterday, which was a reply to a reply that should have appeared under #7, is now # 24!

Let’s see . . . . this one, #49, came up in the right place relative to the one before it, #48, which came up in the wrong place, according to my calculations, but now I see Ava has snuck in to position #50, which is where Another Ian was not long ago . . . . .

! ? ! ? !

Can’t wait to see what it all looks like when I return later. Anyone else experiencing anything similar?

Another Ian posted the following earlier in the month, re the latest Tina Brown “Women in the World” event:

VIDEO: 11 Sept: Conservative Treehouse: “Oh My – Canadian Foreign Minister Left NAFTA Negotiations To Attend “President Trump is a Tyrant” Conference…”
by sundance
Jumpin’ ju-ju bones. Hat Tip to Ezra Levant on Twitter – This is going to go down in the history books of bad diplomacy. You have to watch the first 2 minutes of this video. Canadian Foreign Minister took leave during the middle of critically important trade negotiations with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to attend a Women in the World conference in Toronto.

I replied with some stuff on Trudeau also speaking at the event. here’s another reference to that, with ***Thomson Reuters etc giving generous support!

4 Sept: NewswireCanada: Women in the World Press Release: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to participate in the second annual WOMEN IN THE WORLD Canada Summit
Prime Minister Trudeau joins Chrystia Freeland, Christine Lagarde, Steve McQueen, Amber Tamblyn, Rosamund Pike, Katie Couric, Mira Sorvino, and Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe at Tina Brown’s Summit on
September 10 at the Telus Centre in Toronto…
“Canada is a world leader in gender equality and we’re thrilled to be bringing back an even more topical and inspiring summit this year” said Tina Brown, Founder and CEO of WITW and Tina Brown Live Media. “We’re thrilled to again be part of the cultural and creative fervor that overtakes Toronto during TIFF. We’re especially happy to bring Prime Minister Trudeau to our stage as a world leader who is making the advancement of women a priority in his government, his budget and his foreign and domestic policy.”…
The Women in the World Toronto Summit will be attended by more than 800 political and business leaders, inspiring activists and prominent members of the arts, fashion and entertainment industries…

Oct 2005: BBC: Crichton’s conspiracy theory
A POINT OF VIEW By Harold Evans
In his weekly opinion column, Harold Evans takes issue with Michael Crichton’s latest thriller, in which global warming is the work of mad eco-scientists.

In this new bestseller those hurricanes etc aren’t natural disasters at all. They are the creations of global warming activists – eco-maniacs desperate to publicise the case for controlling emissions of carbon dioxide. To make sure you get his point, Crichton adds a 32-page footnote documenting his own conviction that global warming is an unscientific scare.

What about the contrary worldwide consensus of scientists that global warming is a man-made disaster in the making? Crichton’s answer: “If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus.” As I suppose in the old consensus that the earth is flat.
Crichton’s is not actually a thesis that the displaced folks in Louisiana and Texas can concentrate on at the moment in the wake of Katrina and Rita. Yet for his polemic on global warming, Crichton has become something of a hero to the groups fighting hard to stop anything like the Kyoto treaty…

The sceptics on global warming needed this kind of reinforcement. They have mostly been keeping quiet after the ferocity of Katrina and Rita, widely blamed in the press on the unusually hot waters of the Gulf. Al Gore, in a rousing “action now” speech that impressed business leaders at the Clinton summit in New York recently, pointed out that since the 1970s, hurricanes both in the Atlantic and Pacific have increased in intensity by about 50%…

Senator James Inhofe’s previous best effort was this: “With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phoney science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.”
The senator did not explain quite how 2,000 top scientists in 100 countries could have been persuaded in 2004 to produce a rare consensus that gas emissions left unchecked will produce a series of catastrophes. Nor is he likely to try and explain in the post-Katrina atmosphere.

The conspiracy Crichton outlined in his novel might seem tailor-made for Hollywood – scientists manipulating weather systems to suit their own leftie agenda. But it is very much in the paranoid political style identified by the renowned historian ***Richard Hofstadter. There are still people who just know that FDR conspired with Winston Churchill to have the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. There are millions who just know that JFK’s assassin, the shooter on the grassy hill in Dallas, was hired by Lyndon Johnson…READ ALLhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4319574.stm

Jul 2006: PressGazette: Harold Evans: ‘Just find the bloody facts!’
Q: In Britain you have a Prime Minister who is recognising the planetary menace of global warming. It is a fact.

EVANS: When I did Letter from America for the BBC, I did one on Michael Crichton and his parody, his satirical fictional novel attacking global warming. I thought his whole attack was misguided. So I did a column that I broadcast about Crichton’s mis-statements and about the fact that Exxon was funding the groups that were protesting against it. Do you know it received the biggest response that we had? We received 70,000 emails. 70,000 emails! …
Al Gore in America has made a film — it’s a brilliant, elusive exposition of the scientific truths, but already the right-wing bloggers and the others are deriding him, saying that it is boring. I’d like to see them all on the last ice-float that melts in the Arctic and hear what they would have to say then…https://pressgazette.co.uk/harold-evans-just-find-the-bloody-facts/

23 Jan: Reuters: Harold Evans: Will Davos Man – or Woman – take on Trumpian nihilism?
Only in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election did we become aware of the sinister malefactions created by Facebook and by Twitter robot accounts. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg laughed off as “crazy” the fears that his site had been corrupted. The joke was on the millions of Americans hoodwinked into believing they were reading the opinions of their fellow Americans instead of the inventions of an agitprop campaign by Russian secret services so massive that fully half the U.S. voting population was exposed to divisive messages…

As the Forum program highlights: “China is playing a robust role in international affairs from economic development to the environment.” The commentary underlines Trump’s precipitate rejection of the 195-nation Paris agreement to control emissions: “According to current estimates, the Earth is expected to warm 3.2 percent – more than double the Paris targets… A major extension of the West Antarctic ice sheet has broken off and Swiss glaciers continue to recede. Is there still time to limit warming by two degrees and, if so, how do we do it?” …

24 Sept: ABC: Michelle Guthrie in shock departure from ABC Managing Director role halfway through term
Updated 7 minutes ago
The ABC said the directors resolved it was not in the best interests of the ABC for Ms Guthrie to continue to lead the organisation.

Chairman Justin Milne said the decision was made in the “long-term interests of our own people and the millions of Australians who engage with ABC content every week”.

“This decision has been driven by our commitment to deliver the best possible outcomes for our loyal audiences and the best possible experience for our own people,” he said.
“We understand that transitions can be disruptive in the short term, however the ABC is fortunate to have an experienced and capable executive team that will provide continuity in the months ahead.”…

David Anderson, the ABC’s Director of Entertainment and Specialist, will serve as Acting Managing Director until a formal search process finds Ms Guthrie’s successor.
Mr Anderson has a 30-year career in the media industry and has been responsible for leading the ABC’s broadcast television networks and associated services, radio music networks, podcasts and specialist radio content…
The ABC board has commenced a formal search, both internally and externally, for Ms Guthrie’s replacement.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-24/michelle-guthrie-leaves-as-md-of-the-abc/10297608

24 Sept: news.com.au: ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie sacked
IN a stunning move, the managing director of the ABC, Michelle Guthrie, has been sacked today by the national broadcaster’s board.
by Claire Bickers, staff writers
ABC staff have been notified of the news by email today.
The chairman of the ABC, Justin Milne, and the board made the decision to sack her…

According to the statement, the decision follows discussions over several months that concluded when directors resolved that it was not in the best interests of the ABC for Ms Guthrie to continue to lead the organisation.
Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield responded to the ABC’s shock announcement with a brief statement thanking Ms Guthrie for her service over the past two and a half years “in what is a challenging and rapidly changing media environment”.
Mr Fifield added that managing directors were appointed by the ABC Board, not government.
“The ABC Board has legislated independence in relation to management appointments and the Government respects the duty and role of the Board in these matters,” he said…https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/abc-managing-director-michelle-guthrie-sacked/news-story/9d602760363b7a6cf8693f87bba462fb

18 Sept: AFR: ABC’s Michelle Guthrie among returning expats snubbed by Australian companies
by Lisa Murray
At a time of digital disruption and media industry transformation, Guthrie was confident her experience as a senior executive in Asia at tech giant Google, as chief executive of Star TV in Hong Kong and working for BSkyB in London and Foxtel in Sydney would put her in good stead for a board position…
“I must admit I found that trying to get non-exec director roles in Australia very difficult,” Guthrie says in an interview at ABC’s headquarters in inner-Sydney Ultimo.
“One of the questions I would be asked is, ‘Who do you know in Canberra?’ My answer would be ‘Well, I know a lot of people in China, in Indonesia, in India, and I’ve built those networks over time and I assume I will be able to do that in Canberra as well.’”…

At the time, Guthrie was still based in Singapore and Australian companies weren’t accommodating. She found that puzzling as she had been offered, and taken up, positions on the boards of Auckland Airport and Swedish media company Modern Times Group. Neither company had a problem with where she was based or her lack of local market knowledge.
“I’d only ever been to New Zealand once before but Auckland Airport looked at my experience and said, ‘We’ve already got people who understand New Zealand and airports and infrastructure, but growth in passengers is coming from Asia. We want to understand the future for transportation, the future consumer experience and what that means in terms of technology and digital,’” Guthrie says.

Guthrie is nursing a cold when we meet and admits to preferring the relative anonymity of a Google executive role in Singapore to the media scrutiny and public profile that comes with being the ABC chief.
Despite this, she has agreed to the interview with AFR BOSS magazine because she wants to speak up about an issue that is concerning many credentialled Australians returning home: the undervaluing of overseas experience by local boards and executive teams…

As we walk out of the ABC boardroom she gestures to the wall of photographs of former ABC managing directors – all middle-aged, white men. With a smile, she points to herself and sings the famous Sesame Street lyric: “One of these things is not like the others.”…

Mar 2017: SMH: New ABC chairman set to be Justin Milne, NBN board member and ex-Telstra exec
By Matthew Knott
NBN board member and former Telstra executive Justin Milne is expected to be appointed the new chair of the ABC by the Turnbull government later this week.
Mr Milne will succeed former NSW chief justice James Spigelman in the prestigious role when his five-year term officially expires at the end of the month.
Mr Milne has been a long-time friend of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull since they worked together at internet service provider Ozemail in the 1990s.
The chair of the ABC is unusually the prerogative of the prime minister with input from the minister for communications…
Fairfax Media understands the appointment was approved by cabinet on Monday night, with an official announcement expected later this week…

As well as OzeMail, Mr Milne served as chief executive of internet giants MSN and BigPond before Mr Turnbull appointed him to the NBN board in 2013.
He is also chair of accounting software group MYOB and NetComm Wireless, and also sits on the board of Tabcorp Holdings…

An ABC source said staff would be relieved the government had appointed someone with extensive experience in telecommunications and media rather than an “ideological warrior”.
A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said: “The Government has made no announcement about the next Chair of the ABC, but will do so in the near future.”…

Headhunters’ ‘most unique’ way of finding a new SBS boss
The Australian-2 Sep. 2018
SBS managing director Michael Ebeid departs the organisation for Telstra on October 1. James Taylor, the chief financial officer, takes over as
SBS is certainly pulling out all the stops in its search for its new managing director, hiring elite executive search firm Blenheim Partners (motto no limitations to conduct the headhunting. Alas, Blenheim is not so elite as to observe the rules of cadet-level grammar in its job ad. It says in reference to SBS: “We are one of the most …

14 Aug: SBS: Statement from the SBS Board regarding acting arrangements for SBS Managing Director
The SBS Board of Directors today announced the appointment of SBS Chief Financial Officer James Taylor to the role of Acting SBS Managing Director.
The announcement follows the decision of Michael Ebeid AM, to step down from the role from 1 October after seven and a half years’ service to SBS, to take up a new Group Executive role with Telstra.

ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie was sacked. About time. The board appears to have received the hint that the ABC can’t continue to act as ALP’s propaganda machine against the government that funds the ABC. Sure the ABC should act independently and in an unbiased fashion, and so sometimes will be critical of the government but given ABC’s track record they have relentlessly been on the attack by always being biased. Let’s hope this is the first step of a long line of needed changes to the ABC.

In a blistering statement just before midday, Ms Guthrie said she believed there was “no justification” for the ABC board’s decision to terminate her contract halfway through her five year term at the helm.
“I am devastated by the Board’s decision to terminate my employment despite no claim of wrongdoing on my part,” she said, noting that the board had “at no point” raised any issues with her about the ABC’s transformation under her direction.

Good article by Judith Sloan in The Australian: Victoria’s nonsensical renewable energy experiment
“The government’s legislated target is for at least 40 per cent of electricity to come from renewable energy by 2025. The auctions aimed to ­deliver 650 megawatts (nameplate cap­acity) of new projects. In the end, projects for 928MWs were accept­ed.”
“The fundamental problem of the renewable energy policy in Victoria is the refusal to learn from the problems of the South Australian experiment. These include:
• The failure to impose any firming obligations on the renewable energy projects to ensure 24/7 supply of electricity.
• The failure to take into ­account the extra expenses associated with investment in transmission and distribution needed to connect these often far-flung projects to the grid.
• The failure to take into ­account the destruction of the economics of existing generators — in Victoria’s case, the brown coal-fired generators in the Latrobe Valley — and the effects of the early retirement of these assets.”
“So when the Victorian government quotes figures of between $53/MWh and $57/MWh for the successful renewable energy projects in the recent reverse auction, we need to add a minimum of $40/MWh for firming. This makes these projects very expensive.”

never saw this at ABC “Just In”, but Probyn (who jumped on board the Joe Aston/AFR/Murdoch/Turnbull fantasy), has his own spin (with Matthew Doran) on the Papadopolous/Downer affair!

22 Sept: ABC: What happened when Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos sat down with Australian diplomat Alexander Downer
By political editor Andrew Probyn and political reporter Matthew Doran
Updated yesterday at 1:54pm
An Australian foreign minister with the airs of antipodean aristocracy turns spy for his birth land, using a prized diplomatic posting to pursue oil and gas interests in the Mediterranean.
He’s introduced to an ambitious American up-and-comer through a diplomatic aide with Israeli contacts, and learns of a Russian attempt to nobble a presidential aspirant.
They meet in an upmarket London wine bar that boasts 150 different varieties, but decide that gin and tonic is their tipple of choice.

No, it’s not the blurb on the back of an airport lounge page-turner. It’s the story being spruiked by ***a convicted liar about Australia’s former high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Alexander Downer.
***The real story — or as close to it as can be gleaned — is also intriguing, but the motives ascribed to what went on are far less calculating…

So what did happen?
“Alexander Downer did not randomly reach out to me,” Papadopoulos told conservative commentator Sean Hannity on his nationally syndicated radio show in the US this week.
That’s agreed on by all parties. At least sort of.

Erika Thompson, a career diplomat working as a political counsellor at the commission, had a boyfriend called Christian Cantor, the head of the political branch in the Israeli embassy.
Papadopoulos also knew Cantor, describing him as someone “who just hated Trump, he hated his guts”.
Australian sources describe Cantor, who is now engaged to Thompson, as a “liberal internationalist” who’d be no Trump fan.

“All of a sudden, [Cantor] decides one day to introduce me to his so-called girlfriend, who just happened to be an Australian intelligence officer and the assistant to Alexander Downer,” Papadopoulos said.
Australian sources emphatically deny Thompson is an ASIS agent, but a “mainstream DFAT officer”…

***a little joke from June this year (the blue plaque features in Probyn/Doran’s ABC piece:

22 Jun: Arizona Republic: Visiting the London wine bar that popped the cork on the Trump investigation
by Richard Ruelas
The blue plaque was not at the entrance door. I walked up to the corner of the building and spotted it affixed to the wall there…
We ordered an Australian wine— it seemed fitting — and asked our waiter if the plaque had brought in any tourists.
He said it had brought in a few and was pleased when we told him we were among them.
***In fact, he said, the Australian ambassador who had the meeting with Papadopoulos was in a few nights ago, showing off the table to friends…

22 Sept: The Hill: Donald Trump’s Rosenstein dilemma
by Mark Penn
(Mark Penn served as pollster and adviser to President Clinton from 1995 to 2000, including during Clinton’s impeachment)
Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.
That is the dilemma President Donald Trump faces as he decides whether to fire Rod Rosenstei following revelations that the deputy attorney general allegedly talked about taping the president and rounding up Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment…

This is the deep state unraveling.
People bristle when I sometimes adopt and use that term: “deep state.” But as an outside observer, watching the unmasking of the actions of one official after another at the FBI, CIA and DOJ, I have come to accept that an unelected group of well-educated, experienced individuals running these departments became inebriated with their own power during the last election campaign and apparently came to believe they were on a mission to stop, defeat or remove President Trump and his associates for crimes they would find or, if necessary, manufacture…

Whatever you want to call these well-heeled members of the intelligence community and Justice Department, many of whom now have book and speaking contracts, it is clear they all engaged in a conspiracy to bring down this administration on the basis of unverified information, and to turn the most basic acts of presidential power, like the firing of Comey, into obstruction of justice.
The more information that comes out here, the ever more egregious the actions of all of these officials appear in the light of day.https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/407908-donald-trumps-rosenstein-dilemma

EPA and Bloom are battling this in the courts. Meanwhile, at least one Bloom customer has paid an environmental fine (without admitting fault) for improperly handling (Bloom’s) hazmats. If Bloom loses this lawsuit, it has another hazmat exemption up its sleeve. Get cut by a sword, parry a stroke, get cut by another. “

https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/5650519/frost-smacks-wimmera-around/Frost smacks Wimmera around
“Official Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) readings dipped to -3.3 at Longerenong on Saturday night, while unofficial weather stations on the Wimmera Plains recorded figures lower than that as the region shivered through one of its coldest September nights on record”

All the farmers with damaged crops need to do, is apply for climate funding that is there for them for occasions like this, so they can keep capturing carbon dioxide via their crops…. the clean green way.

22 Sept: UK Telegraph: Hopes sink for tidal power project
By Jillian Ambrose
Industrial heavyweights have turned their back on the Swansea Tidal Power project as the countdown begins on a one-year stay of execution for its embattled developer.
Tidal Lagoon Power has lost three of its high-profile backers from the board, including billionaire industrialist Sanjeev Gupta who is pursuing a rival tidal project with Simec Atlantis.
The boardroom exodus took place over the summer amid a make-or-break debt deal which sets the clock ticking on a bid to keep the company afloat.

Gareth Roberts, of KRE Corporate Recovery, said his firm was tasked with setting up a company voluntary agreement (CVA) to “mothball” the beleaguered scheme and help buy time to continue fundraising.
The “holding mechanism” grants the developer a maximum of two years before creditors could opt to take action, but if there is no appetite to fund the project within the next year the company may choose to liquidate.
Rajeev Gandhi, chief financial officer of Simec, owned by Mr Gupta’s GFG Alliance, has also left, along with Keith Clarke, an industry veteran who sits on the board of Sirius Minerals.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/09/22/hopes-sink-tidal-power-project/

PICS: 23 Sept: CTV: Say it ain’t snow: Wintry first day of fall in the Prairies
The first day of fall seemed more like the first day of winter in the Prairies as temperatures plummeted and snow fell.
People from across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta snapped pictures of the mini-snowpocalypse on Saturday.
The snowfall amounts were so significant that they toppled trees and took out power lines in parts of Manitoba, forcing some residents to spend the night in the dark…

21 Sept: Anthony Watts Explains Why It’s Not as Warm as You Think!
Anthony Watts, founder and editor at wattsupwiththat.com, explains why the oft-reported surface temperature record is inaccurate, misleading, and an insult to proper science.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2u87d_FnME

it’s all over bar the shouting from the CAGW zealots, including the MSM:

2 Sept: Observer/Guardian: Climate study ‘pulls punches’ to keep polluters on board
‘True risks’ of warming played down to placate fossil-fuel nations
by Robin McKie
Warnings about the dangers of global warming are being watered down in the final version of a key climate report for a major international meeting next month, according to reviewers who have studied earlier versions of the report and its summary.

They say scientists working on the final draft of the summary are censoring their own warnings and “pulling their punches” to make policy recommendations seem more palatable to countries – such as the US, Saudi Arabia and Australia – that are reluctant to cut fossil-fuel emissions, a key cause of global warming. “Downplaying the worst impacts of climate change has led the scientific authors to omit crucial information from the summary for policymakers,” said one reviewer, Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment…

Cuts made to the final draft of the summary include:
• Any mention that temperature rises of above 1.5C could lead to increased migrations and conflict;
• All discussion of the danger of the Gulf Stream being disrupted by cold water flowing from the Arctic where more and more sea-ice is melting;
• Warnings about the dangers that 1.5–2C temperature rises could trigger irreversible loss of the Greenland ice sheet and raise sea levels by 1–2 metres over the next two centuries.

Other cuts from the summary include the sentence: “Poverty and disadvantage have increased with recent warming (about 1C) and are expected to increase in many populations as average global temperatures increase from 1C to 1.5C and beyond.”
The original summary also stated “at 2C warming, there is a potential for significant population displacement concentrated in the tropics”. Again this is not mentioned in the report for policymakers…https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/23/scientists-changing-global-warming-report-please-polluters

24 Sept: Guardian: Opec predicts massive rise in oil production over next five years
Increasing demand from airlines will more than offset reductions from electric cars
by Adam Vaughan
World oil production will soar to new records over the next five years, as a dramatic expansion in demand from airlines offsets the arrival of electric cars, according to a report from Opec.
In a forecast that will dismay environmentalists – and which questions the theory that oil company reserves will become “stranded assets” – Opec’s annual report significantly revised production estimates upwards.

Most of the production increase will come from countries outside Opec, led by explosive growth from frackers in the United States, with China and India leading the increase in demand.
Opec expects global oil demand to reach nearly 112m barrels per day by 2040, driven by transportation and petrochemicals. That is up from almost 100m today and higher than last year’s projection…

***Coal will continue to be be burned in record amounts, despite concerns about its impact on climate change. Opec estimates that coal usage in the OECD countries will plummet by a third by 2040, but it will increase by 20% in developing countries to reach five times the volumes burned in the west…

24 Sept: AFR: Coronado tips coking coal floor of $US170 ahead of $4b float
by Peter Ker
Coking coal markets will have a price “floor” of about $US170 per tonne for the next three years according to the private equity coal play that has invited Australian investors to spend up to $1.39 billion backing the second largest float of the year.

Coronado Global Resources’ plans to float via an issuance of new CHESS Depositary Interests took a significant step forward on Monday with the release of a prospectus that promises a geographically diversified coal miner with a near term focus on dividends.

Created through four acquisitions in the space of five years by US private equity firm Energy and Minerals Group (EMG), the float looms as the mining industry’s biggest in recent years and would value Coronado at more than $4 billion if executed successfully. The float will be the market’s second biggest after the July listing of Viva Energy.
The float occurs at a time of strong coking coal prices, with premium hard coking coal from Queensland fetching about $US199 per tonne on Monday, continuing a two year period of elevated prices…

22 Sept: Reuters: China drafts new nuclear energy law, focus on international market
by David Stanway
SHANGHAI – China will provide more support for its nuclear firms to go overseas and strengthen their position on the international market, according to new draft legislation submitted to the industry for consultation on Friday…

China aims to bring its total installed nuclear capacity to 58 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2020, up from 37 GW at the end of June this year, but it also has ambitions to dominate the global market and has created a unified third-generation reactor brand known as the “Hualong One” to sell overseas.
China has already signed a series of preliminary agreements with countries like Brazil, Argentina, Uganda and Cambodia and it is also undergoing a technical approval process for the Hualong One in Britain…https://www.euronews.com/2018/09/22/china-drafts-new-nuclear-energy-law-focus-on-international-market

24 Sept: SouthChinaMorningPost: China scrambles to avoid a repeat of last winter’s botched coal-to-gas conversion programme in highly polluting northern rural areas
China Gas, a major natural gas distributor, says it has lined up supply contracts to ensure it can heat a growing number of rural homes – but some analysts are sceptical as another winter approaches.
by Yujing Liu
Shivering villagers in northern China resorted to burning corn cobs and wood scraps last winter because a poorly executed coal-to-natural gas conversion left thousands of them without a reliable source of fuel to heat their homes.
Now, as winter again approaches, the country’s largest gas players – like distributor China Gas Holdings – are under intense pressure to ensure demand will be met…

“The gas shortage will not be as bad as last year, and the reported cases of freezing villagers will definitely not happen again this year,” Kevin Zhu Weiwei, executive director and managing vice-president of China Gas, confidently told a small group of reporters invited to the eastern coastal city Qingdao to see its operations and meet with a few villagers…

While acknowledging supply will again be tight this winter, China Gas says it will be able to supply the 750,000 homes left behind last year. It plans to convert an additional 2 million homes this year, and says it will be able to supply gas to up to 600,000 of those…

That is just the beginning, as China Gas announced ambitious targets of meeting the energy needs of 2.8 million additional rural households in northern China next year, and 3.6 million in 2020, bringing the total to more than 8 million households in just three years…

But not all analysts are convinced China Gas or the country’s other distributors are prepared to meet the lofty goals as the second year of the programme nears.
“Will there be a shortage this winter? Yes,” said Dennis Ip, head of analysis of Hong Kong and China utilities at Daiwa Capital Markets. “Will it be as bad as last year? We don’t know.”…

24 Sept: Bloomberg: China Is Adding More Coal Capacity
The projected expansion contrasts with government announcements of cutting unwanted and inefficient mines
by Jing Yang; With assistance by Aibing Guo, and Ben Sharples
For all its talk about cutting coal mining capacity, China actually plans to add more. The world’s biggest producer and user of the fuel may see net annual capacity additions of as much as 400 million tons by 2020, according to estimates from analysts including Wood Mackenzie Ltd. ***That’s about 10 percent of its current capacity and almost as much as Indonesia, the world’s biggest exporter, sells each year.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-24/china-is-adding-more-coal-capacity

After Pearl Harbour Australians called Menzies “pig iron Bob” because the scrap iron we sold to Japan was returned on Darwin.

Will our current parliamentarians be similarly branded when push turns to shove and China bares it’s fangs? The folly of appeasing an aggressively expansionist nation which is hardening it’s attitude to Taiwan and even seems intent on matching the US militarily because we do so much trade with them seems equally short sighted.

Our unis are at the van selling out our national interest for a few pieces of silver. Every student that stays, and they seem to do so easily, is a potential subversive.

I’m doing a straw poll: There is an American/Australian consortium who want to build a space launch pad in East Arnhem Land and a Chinese/Australian combo want to do the same on the west coast of Cape York.

23 Sept: AFR: Dear voters: Australia’s political chaos is your fault
***by Alexander Downer
First, let’s take our old friend climate change. The public overwhelmingly want Australia to contribute to lowering greenhouse emissions. At the very least they want us to make a proportional contribution to the global task of CO2 mitigation.

But here’s the rub. They don’t want to pay more for electricity. Yet the reason we have the Renewable Energy Target and other subsidies is to force power producers to use more expensive and less reliable – but cleaner – sources of power. And the people who suffer the most from higher power prices are the poor. Carbon taxes are regressive.
The public demand is simple; cheaper and cleaner power. In the short term it can’t be done…

And then there are the coal mines. Much of the public want them closed. Mines which were the source of our great comparative advantage: cheap energy and our second biggest generator of export earnings. And one other point about coal. Over half of our coal exports are coking coal for steel works. You can recycle steel by electrolysis but you can’t make it without coal. So where are we going with all this? A new world without steel?…https://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/dear-voters-australias-political-chaos-is-your-fault-20180923-h15qm1

an update about a weird development, which I doubt Dem voters are even aware of. the FakeNewsMSM certainly aren’t informing them about this.
WSWS believes the dodgy polls suggesting the Dems might take the House in Nov. if they do, will it be by fair means or foul?

21 Sept: World Socialist Web Site: The CIA Democrats: A balance sheet of the primaries
By Patrick Martin
With the end the primary season, the Democratic Party leadership and their allies in the national security apparatus have completed the first stage of what might be termed a “friendly takeover” of the Democrats by candidates recruited from among military, CIA and civilian national security cadres.
The World Socialist Web Site first identified the phenomenon of the CIA Democrats in a series published in March. At the time we noted the large number of candidates drawn from the military-intelligence apparatus seeking Democratic nominations in competitive congressional districts. If the Democrats won the November election, we warned, such military-intelligence operatives would hold the balance of power in the new House of Representatives.

Of the 44 districts we identified in March—since grown to 46—military-intelligence candidates have won 30 nominations, a success rate of about 66 percent or two-thirds. That testifies to their extensive support from the Democratic Party leadership, from longtime financial backers of the Democrats, and from the top levels of the national security establishment.

There are 115 districts rated as competitive by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) or by groups specializing in the district-by-district analysis of congressional races. The 30 military-intelligence candidates account for more than one quarter of the Democratic candidates in these districts, making them the largest single group, ahead of state and local politicians (26), lawyers (20), millionaires (15), other professionals (8), former Obama aides (3) and miscellaneous (13).

Most of the organizations that investigate and rate congressional races are projecting that the Democrats will win more than the 23 seats required to take control of the House, and possibly as many as 50 or 60. In the latter scenario, CIA Democrats could make up as much as half of the new class of first-time representatives…

What follows is a complete list of the 30 military-intelligence Democrats who are on the ballot November 6, together with the details of their careers in the national security apparatus. The list includes new candidates not previously identified, and new information on all the candidates…http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/21/ciad-s21.html

24 Sept: DerbyTelegraph: How weather forecasters have reacted to reports of FOUR months of snow this winter
There’s been some strong opinions shared on this
Alan Thompson
Predictions of prolonged snow in the “coldest winter for a decade” in a blizzard of tabloid headlines have been rubbished by weather forecasters and media commentators alike.
The red-tops have predicted four months of snow this winter.
But forecasters have taken to social media to debunk the claims, describing them as “idiotic” and “scaremongering”.

The Express’s headline read: “Long range forecast predicts SNOW DELUGE – Met Office forecast.”
“Coldest winter for a decade”
The Sun wrote: “Here we snow: Britain could be hit by FOUR MONTHS of snow in “coldest winter for a decade”
And The Mail opted for: “Britain could be set for FOUR MONTHS of snow following record setting summer heatwave”
Barely have the first predicted flakes had a chance to settle into our consciousness before hair dryer blasts of scorn and derision from the forecasting world blew in to melt the predictions.

Forecaster Liam Dutton, a BBC weatherman for 9 years and now a Channel 4 forecaster described the reports as “ridiculous”
“It was inevitable”
Official Weather UK wrote: “And it has begun, bang on cue! It was inevitable, it always happens – like a clock hitting 12 – the usual tabloid headlines predicting “four months of snow” & “snow deluge”.
“How believable? As believable as pink & blue dancing hippo’s in Greenland.”
East Midlands weatherman Dave Mutton said: “We are getting extremes of weather, like the summer we’ve just had, but we’re not in the Arctic.
“There will be the odd week of snowy weather, starting in December and going on until February, but only for a week or two at a time – not four months!”

(PAT – AND NOW FOR THE BIGGEST LAUGHS)
***One of the reasons the reports have prompted a wave of criticism is because the very nature of long term forecasting is fraught with difficulty.
The Met Office explains: “Predicting how the weather will behave over the coming hours, days, weeks and months is a complex undertaking.

“Each timescale presents its own challenges. In an ideal world, everyone would like to know exactly what the weather will do so we can make definite plans.
“Nature, however, doesn’t work like that.

24 Sept: TribuneIndia: Tourists among 1,000 stranded in snow-covered higher reaches of Manali
Kuldeep Chauhan, Tribune News Service, Shimla
More than 1,000 people, including tourists and locals running camping sites, have been stranded in the higher reaches of Manali and Keylong due to fresh spell of snow over the past 24 hours.
The people have been mainly stranded between Serchu and 16,500-ft-high Bara La Cha pass, between Zing Zing Bar and Deepak Tal on the Keylong Serchu-Leh highway and between Grampu and Batal on the Kaza-Grampu Manali road. At places, three feet of snow has been recorded.
Over 50 motorists and jeep safaris that left for Leh three days back from Keylong had reached Serchu camps.

There are more than 500 tourists, including foreigners, who have abandoned their vehicles on the the highway at several places due to snow and have taken shelter in camps and tents at Zing Zing Bar and Serchu, president of Lahaul Spiti hoteliers association Tashi Haryapa told The Tribune.
All roads in Lahaul remained closed and about 100 tourists who came from Kaza in Spiti on Sunday remained stranded at Grampu Batal and Chatru on the Kaza -Grampu road.
The tourists are safe but the camp owners at Serchu and Batal and Grampu and Zing Zingbar may run out of food supply as they were to shut down the camps by this week due to the coming winter season, Tashi said.

More than 300 tourists from West Bengal and other states, including foreigners, remained stranded in Keylong Sissu and Udaipur, due to the snow. They are safe and are staying in local hotels, Tashi said.
The entire Lahaul Valley has plunged into darkness as power has been snapped due to heavy snow.
The tourists could be airlifted by the chopper as the BRO will take days to restore the highways. But it is still snowing and no chopper could operate till the weather cleared, Tashi said.

Apple trees have been destroyed and peas, potatoes and off-season vegetable crops have suffered massive and unprecedented damage, official and local inputs revealed.
“The communication remained cut off due to the blackout in the Valley for the past three days. We are running generators to recharge batteries of mobile phones, but the BSNL connectivity, the only service provided in the Valley, was also snapped due to lack of power.”
There was, however, no official information available on the exact number of people stranded in the snow-bound highways in Lahaul.
The Lahaul Spiti DC could not be contacted due to breached link to the tribal valley.https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/himachal/tourists-among-1-000-stranded-in-snow-covered-higher-reaches-of-manali/658094.html

BBC Weather forecast: Temperatures to ‘DROP like a rock’ with FROST possible in UK tonight
UK Express – 24 Sept 2018
Shock long-range weather forecasts winter 2018/19 indicate the UK could face the coldest winter for almost a decade, with snow threatening to blanket Britain by Christmas.
Brutally cold weather will be driven in part by plunge in solar activity with subsequent knock-on effects on the jet stream and Arctic airmass, according to long-range forecasters.
Freezing winds from the north threaten to push thermometers below freezing through December, January and February.
A repeat of the 2010/11 big freeze which brought the coldest December since records began in 1910 is looking increasingly likely…

Return of Beast from the East: Yorkshire reacts to prediction of ‘four months of snow’ in new big freeze
Yorkshire Post 23 Sept 2018

24 Sept: CBS: Snow Hits Canada
Snowfall has covered Edmonton, Alberta.
Weather reports estimated that Edmonton International Airport had nearly nine inches of snow in September prior to Friday, which surpassed the previous high of five inches set in 1965.
The snow even caused organizers to cancel a golf tournament.

More than a hundred collisions in one day after snow covers Edmonton
Toronto Star-15 hours ago

Freezing winds and snow expected to hit NZ this week
Radio New Zealand-6 hours ago
—

ALARMISTS CARRY ON REGARDLESS:

UK could face droughts next spring after summer heatwave, experts warn
UK Independent – 24 Sept 2018
VIDEO: Why is it so hot in the UK and around the world?
The National Drought Group (NDG), which is made up of various water and environment organisations, gathered on Thursday to discuss how to maintain supplies in the event of a 2019 drought.
Despite recent rainfall…

23 Sept: Guardian: Ben Smee: Energy policy captive to lobbyists and ‘mad ideologues’, Tim Flannery says
Five years after the Climate Commission’s axing, its former head says there has been progress as well as setbacks
Five years since the Abbott government scrapped the Climate Commission, the environmentalist Tim Flannery says our energy policy remains hostage to lobbyists, political self-interest and “mad ideologues”.
But the organisation Flannery helped start from the ashes of Abbott’s climate bonfire, the Climate Council, says that attitudes have shifted substantially since 2013 – at least those outside federal parliament.
“We’re being held hostage at a federal level,” Flannery told Guardian Australia.
“It has been a disgrace. Our failures are the failures of a small group of politicians who are supposed to be acting in the national interest. Instead, they’re using energy policy as a cudgel, they’re listening to paid lobbyists and doing their bidding.”
“I don’t want to say any more because I’ll just get angry.”…

22 Sept: UK Times: David Attenborough interview: Trump, climate change and the BBC salary row
So what’s his take on the BBC pay controversy, antisemitism, voluntary euthanasia and Trump? Nigel Farndale asks the questions.
In interview with Sir David Attenborough is like a game of chess. There are stand-offs and exchanges, lures and skewers, but today he is not trying to intimidate his opponent psychologically, as some interviewers have accused him of doing in the past. Instead of being “prickly”, he is being strategic in the way he deflects and self-deprecates.
And he is a deft user of body language to convey meaning he would rather not commit to speech. When, for example, I ask him if, having had a heart-to-heart about climate change with President Obama in 2015, he would now like to do the same with President Trump, a global warming denier, he slowly closes his eyes, gives a deep sigh and opens them again before saying…

CarbonBrief: In an interview with the Sunday Times, Sir David Attenborough talks about his views on communicating the importance of climate change, climate scepticism and what finally convinced him of the science of global warming. He says: “If you are in a prominent position, you’d better be bloody sure that your views are right, and what convinced me was a lecture I heard by a scientist called Ralph Cicerone. He produced facts and figures and I was left with no doubt. From that moment, I felt I could say it.”

***YOU HAVE TO SCROLL DOWN NEARLY 40 PARAGRAPHS BEFORE FINDING OUT THEY DON’T HAVE THE LECTURE!

13 Aug: CarbonBrief: Leo Hickmam: The 2004 lecture that finally convinced David Attenborough about global warming
***However, Carbon Brief could not locate an archived online copy or video of Prof Ralph Cicerone’s pivotal lecture in 2004, which Attenborough still cites as his climate change epiphany…

In his formal response when receiving the 2004 award, Cicerone cautioned: “Today, the global atmosphere is changing under human influence.” However, this is not the lecture Attenborough refers to.
The University of California, Irvine holds Cicerone’s archive and it has confirmed to Carbon Brief that, while a copy or recording does not exist in his files, he did give a seperate lecture on climate change at that event…

Additionally, Cicerone’s wife, Carol, tells Carbon Brief:
“Because of the seating arrangements for awardees, Ralph and I were seated next to Sir David Attenborough, so when Ralph was on stage to speak, I could easily observe the impact Ralph’s talk was making. Sir David was clearly moved by Ralph’s talk and came up to him to comment, ‘Brilliant!’”…

Carbon Brief also asked the World Cultural Council to search its own archives for a copy of the lecture. It could not find the original, but it did find a Microsoft Word file that Cicerone emailed to it a few months later when it asked him for a copy for its own records.

The file (below) shows that Cicerone had since slightly adapted the lecture into notes he would read out when giving evidence to a US Senate hearing on 21 July 2005, which was investigating “climate change science and economics”.
10-PAGE DOCUMENT

The metadata of the original Word file shows the document was created on 7 September 2004, just a month before his lecture in Liège.
It includes this NASA GISS chart showing the rise in the global temperature anomaly between 1880 and 2003. This is the chart that Attenborough would have seen:
CHART

And amid all of Cicerone’s considered, nuanced explaining, Attenborough would also have heard him say:
“Burning fossil fuel for energy, industrial processes and transportation releases CO2 to the atmosphere. CO2 in the atmosphere is now at its highest level in 400,000 years and continues to rise. Nearly all climate scientists today believe that much of Earth’s current warming has been caused by increases in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels.”

Within months of hearing Cicerone’s lecture, Attenborough entered into discussions with the BBC to start making a series of programmes dedicated to climate change.

Postscript: The huge public appetite for Attenborough’s opinions was observed first-hand during the researching of this article when Carbon Brief’s editor tweeted a screenshot from Attenborough’s 2007 programme, “Climate Change: Britain Under Threat”…
The tweet was retweeted by the likes of Gary Lineker, Stephen Fry, Derren Brown and Sir Nick Faldo. It has since between retweeted more than 23,000 times. According to Twitter’s analytics, it has been seen more than five million times.https://www.carbonbrief.org/the-2004-lecture-that-finally-convinced-david-attenborough-about-global-warming